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Chapter 7: Make Work a Celebration

Our present social setup is based wholly on fear - fear of all kinds. There is fear in its very foundation; it is fear-oriented from A to Z. We are afraid of everything around us and this fear inhibits us, does not allow us to step out of our age-old limitations. And we never think of what a mess we have made of our life and living. Fear of what is going to happen prevents us from taking any new steps forward, and so we refuse to see the actual state of our affairs. Because if we see what really is, we will be compelled to change the old for the new; the old is so rotten. But our fear of the new fetters our feet and we go on dragging with the old.

I have had occasion to come into contact with hundreds of thousands of people and I observed them very closely, I really peeked into their hearts and minds. And I say I did not find a single person, man or woman, who is satisfied with his or her marriage and who is not steeped in misery on account of it. But if you point out their reality to them, they will immediately enumerate the various problems that will arise if they try to do something about it. The irony is that they are already ridden with problems, but they are not aware of them because they have become so used to them.

It is as if we ask a bird in a cage to fly into the open sky and it says that it is so secure in its cage, whereas the freedom of the sky will create so many problems for it. If you make a change, problems are bound to arise. And so far as the caged bird is concerned, its difficulties will be enormous, because it has no experience of flying in the vast sky. Yet a choice has to be made.

Granted that there is security in the cage, but what worth is this security in comparison with the freedom and ecstasy of flying in the open sky? If you think only of security then the grave is the most secure place on the earth.

Questioner. Swami Sahajanand accuses Krishna of corrupting people rather than liberating them through his path of sensuous enjoyment. And he offers two reasons in support of his accusation. Firstly, if one worships Krishna as a gopi-like devotee this worship is likely to degenerate into something like the maharaj libel case of Gujarat. And secondly, if one turns life into a celebration in Krishna’s way it will give impetus to man’s desire for indulgence.

There is yet another question arising from the same source.

Is not the way of Rama’s devotee superior to that of Krishna’s? Virtues like celibacy, detachment, dynamism and wisdom associated with Hanumana - a chief devotee of Rama - are lacking in the devotees of Krishna like Meera, Narsi and Surdas, who are all introverts disinterested in the service of society.And lastly I want to know why painters of their times did not show Rama, Krishna, Mahavira and Buddha with beards as they did in the case of Jesus Christ.